Health and Human Services Committee Meeting Transcript – 3/16/2015 Title: ATXN 24/7 Recording Channel: 6 - ATXN Recorded On: 3/16/2015 6:00:00 AM Original Air Date: 3/16/2015 Transcript Generated by SnapStream ================================== [8:58:11 AM] . >>> >>> >> Test test test this is a test, abcdefg, this is a test of the captioning system. >>> >>> >> City council district 1. [9:00:42 AM] To my left is council woman Ellen troxclair and we have the health and human services -- health and human services council committee, as we wait for our other members to come, I would like for you in the audience to introduce yourselves. Young lady over here on the right? >> [Indiscernible]. >> I'm Burt lambreraas. >> [Indiscernible] Health and human services department. >>> [Indiscernible]. >> I'm with health and human services. >> I'm Robert [indiscernible] With health and human services. >> [Indiscernible]. >> I'm Janet [indiscernible]. [No microphone] >> [Indiscernible]. >> I'm glad you're here on spring break. [Laughter]. >> [Indiscernible] Medical director health and human services. >> [Audience introducing themselves, no microphone]. [9:03:22 AM] >> Houston: Would you check and see if mayor pro tem is going to be here or is she on -- >> She's probably on her way. >> Okay. >> I will check with her. >> Houston: Okay, thank you. [Indiscernible] >> Houston: I think I've got this right. This is our first meeting so good morning. This is the health -- the city council committee on health and human services. We're meeting in the boards and commissions room at 301 west second street on March 16th, it is now 9:03ish in city hall. We will follow the agenda as is printed and I will call this meeting to order. There are no minutes because this is our first meeting. And so we will move right into citizens communications. And we have Ms. Erica Anthony Benevides. Right there. >> Uh-huh. >> This one? >> Uh-huh. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay, my group [indiscernible] Water watch has reached out -- oh. >> Is this on? >> Mic check? Hello? Check? Hello? Okay. Thank you. I'm coming on behalf of a -- just a concerned citizen. I do work with the Austin branch of food and water watch. Previously, we have -- we had talked to the previous council about a symbolic resolution concerning the ban of non-therapeutic or subtherapeutic antibiotics on factory farms. We weren't able to get a chance to really speak on the issue, so on behalf of [9:05:23 AM] the former local coordinator, I'm speaking for him. I just wanted to present to you the information that the -- like the national group has available on antibiotic resistance, so I've got a flier for you, for information, and also a pamphlet. So pretty much the -- the reason we're wanting Austin to -- Austin city council and the public human health and human services committee to consider this is we want to join a network of cities that want to inspire congress to move forward with federal action on this. The reason is so -- the CDC in 2013 found that there were over 2 million illnesses caused by antibiotic resistant infections. Out of those -- sorry -- 2300 -- or 23,000 deaths from them. So any time we have a scare concerning our meat, it's not just oh, people are getting sick. But people are actually getting antibiotic resistant infections, so it's actually a little bit more scary than we realized. Another reason we want to kind of consider some federal action on this is because also in 2013 there was about 21 to $34 billion spent on these antibiotic resistant infections and treating those. It becomes a problem because we aren't able to catch up our research. It takes much, much funding to even discover antibiotics that are appropriate for treating certain diseases and due to the nature of -- of the way germs like mutate, and become resistant to infections, you know, we're not able to catch up. So we're using about 80% of all available antibiotics. That's livestock and human antibiotics on factory farms. That goes into the meat. Those are in subtherapeutic levels, which means they get [9:07:24 AM] a small dose every day. So these infections that they acquire due to the close quarters, being in contact with, you know, sick animals, those are due to, you know, the germs becoming immune to those antibiotics. It spreads through the cattle. Then those cattle get sick or this chicken gets sick and then they -- we lose money there. But also because, you know, they have to clean the farms, the waste product comes out and it goes into -- eventually seeps out into the water system and then if we pull fresh water -- sorry, thank you. >> Houston: Thank you so much for your comments. Did we have anyone else? The next item on the agenda is to discuss our top priorities, as many of you know, this is our first time meeting and so I thought it would be helpful as we convene for our first time is to talk a little bit about what are some of the priorities that you have that don't have to be on the agenda, but things that you are concerned about in Austin or in your district that we need to start getting some information on so that we can have that discussion further down the road. So councilmember Garza? >> Garza: Yeah, I wrote some things down. Of course, I'm going to selfishly prioritize things in my district, but I think they apply to city-wide issues as well. The big one in district 2 is food deserts, that I would love to see how we can address that. There's a lot of new development going on around the del valle area. Where austinites live. And I would love to see how we can address the food desert issue. Healthy foods in convenience stores. The families in dove springs [9:09:24 AM] have done a really good job of fighting convenience stores that want to come in and just sell high fructose corn syrup, you know, kind of foods and access to health and wellness services. There is a childhood obesity problem in east and southeast Austin, so health and wellness programs, dove springs rec got a wonderful playscape last -- a weekend ago and it's just -- I would have to say it's the best in the city, [laughter], but it's a great, great thing and I would like to see that at more parks. It was wonderful seeing families out there on the zip line and, you know, exercising and being active. So health and wellness initiatives are important. Early childhood development, any way we can partner with aisd to help in that effort. I know there's tons of research that shows if we get in there early and start -- start helping children early, you know, has a great effect on future -- I don't know if this would be health and human services but if he with look for ways to fund pre-k, that would be a big priority. Maybe that would be audit and finance, I don't know. Maybe that's something that we talk about during the budget. Food access, childhood obesity, homelessness and care for seniors. I would say are my -- are some ideas that I have right off for this first meeting. And going forward. >> Houston: Thank you. >> If I could comment on those issues, Carlos [indiscernible] Director of health and human services. I just want to say that our deputy director, Shannon Jones, is very well informed in terms of these issues through his work on the [indiscernible] Of course he didn't do this work alone and does it with the rest of the staff in human resources and the department of health and human services, so we are very well aware of the issues that are confronted by dove springs and what you said is absolutely true. If you look at something [9:11:26 AM] like lack of full service -- access to lack of full service super markets, it's -- it begins an avalanche of all types of problems. It's the gateway to obesity, chronic disease issues, and all other types of problems. So this is something that we are very concerned about and when we add in factors such as lack of access to early childhood hood care, a dollar placed in that particular field saves $49 over the life span of a child. So very well aware and we're very interested in working with you on this particular problem. >> Houston: Thank you. Before we go -- hold on. I want to remind people that we're in an acronym-free zone. So I didn't stop the young lady before, but I needed to stop you -- >> I am so sorry. >> Houston: People don't know what acronyms you're using. So please try to say what it is that we're talking about so that people will know. >> If you would forgive me and let me correct myself. >> That's the first time. >> Community health assessment is cha, community health improvement plan is the chip. It's a way of assessing what the community needs and then a way of assessing how to help the community reach not only improving the health of the community, but reaching equity in terms of resources across the city. >> Houston: Thank you so much. We're glad to have mayor pro tem tovo here with us this morning. >> Tovo: Thanks, sorry to join you all late. >> Houston: That's okay. Councilmember troxclair? >> Troxclair: Sure. A few things that come to my mind that would relate to this committee are food insecurity in the city. I had the opportunity to visit the food bank a few months ago and learn about the kind of services that they are providing and look forward to learning about [9:13:26 AM] what we can do to make sure that people have access to healthy food on a consistent basis. Preventive health care, especially for children. It seems like, you know, we have a responsibility to -- to make sure that people are getting the information and care they need before they get into situations of being treated in the emergency room or have chronic issues down the road. So that would be a topic that I'm interested in. And I saw two topics on our agenda that I'm also looking forward to learning more about, the temporary food permit issue is something that I've heard from a few constituents in my district that have had frustrations with -- with that issue and then the women and children's shelter. Looking forward to getting an update on that bond funding and what we're doing to serve those women and children. >> Once again, if I may ... Dr. Freedman from the CDC, the center for disease prevention -- [laughter] -- has a wonderful pyramid on what if -- what impacts human health and we're -- we would be more than happy to provide that to you, councilmember. And the health care is a big factor in human health. What you mentioned earlier is even a bigger health factor on human health and that's prevention. Of course, we would rather prevent disease than have to treat it. That's the most cost effective way to do it. Getting back to the -- to councilmember Garza's issue of access to exercise, access to fresh foods, access to safe neighborhoods, that's really where the secret lies. If we could do those things more effectively, we would have families that would need less health care. [9:15:26 AM] Of course, we all need health care because we're going to get ill. And besides getting ill, you know, it's an issue of having wellness. In order to have wellness, you need health care. So, yes, we are all very concerned about those things. Those are things that the health and human services department could work on. But we will get that pyramid because I think it's very important for all of us to understand that health doesn't begin at the doctor's office. Health begins in our neighborhoods. >> Houston: Thank you so much. And self correction is a great sign. >> Yeah, I'm good at that. [Laughter]. >> Tovo: Well, with apologies that I haven't heard what my colleagues other than councilmember troxclair have offered, I will run down the little list that I made. A couple sounds like you may have talked about, health access and food insecurity issues. In particular, I'm very interested in exploring ideas that were raised at our policy session about having mobile -- mobile nurses. Also, I'm interested in looking for some more -- some creative ways that we can fill in some -- that we can address the food insecurity issue, like perhaps creating pantries, not food pantries, but perhaps little mini -- minisupermarket areas at rec centers, I'm interested in exploring creative ways to address those issues that might come from our community. The sobriety center is a high priority of mine, this is an issue that members of our community have worked on for about the last year, I this I for a decade, but over the last year there's been a council resolution directing our staff to work with the county staff and community partners. I believe they are about ready to do a briefing to the full council, I would love to see us have that briefing, maybe here at health and human services and then consider what actions are appropriate to recommend to the full council. [9:17:26 AM] I'm happy to talk more about any of these, but I'll just otherwise run through them. Education, continuing our work with aid and our other school districts, furthering our work looking at joint use opportunities for facilities, and looking at ways in which those facilities can -- can be really assets to the whole community, the community school model is -- is one way of talking about it. We've always been talking about it as joint use, but it's really all about the same thing, about figuring out how to make sure our schools are successful and looking at those as ways to reach all families -- reach the family, rather than just the students. Permanent supportive housing, I think, touches on our committee, though it may be better located in housing and certainly a crossover issue. The issue of safe her housing. We have a lot to do in terms of making sure that our substandard housing, that our city has an appropriate response to it. That, too, seemed to me probably a housing or public safety issue. But to the extent that -- that those families need wrap-around services in the case of an emergency relocation, I think it touches on the work we're doing here. Youth programs, in particular, making sure that we are responding to the United Way early childhood action report. I believe they're about to present us with some results of the work that they have been doing, and I believe there will be some recommendations that we can move forward on. I'm also particularly keen on seeing how we can, as a city, really work carefully with our providers out in the community to see what gaps exist and who among the spectrum of providers is best suited to address them. And I know there was a comment at the early childhood summit last week, for example, that maybe the city could do more early childhood programming within our parks and rec centers and, you know, our parks and [9:19:27 AM] rec programs seemed more geared toward older children. I think that's a conversation that we need to have here about does everybody kind of focus on are we better off as a city focusing on the areas that we are doing and are doing well or do we want to have a conversation about exploring different kind of programming. And also making sure that our parks and our rec programs and our library programs aimed at youth are being done in really close coordination with the work that our police force is doing, as we identify areas of the city where there are high elements of youth crime, how can we utilize the resources of our -- of our other city departments to really try to make change in those areas. Senior programs is on my list and then one that -- one that is a really -- really falls into number two, but I didn't see it on the list that the staff had provided, we have begun some action in Austin at banning painful devices in circuses. The staff have come back with a few responses and I believe they have an ordinance ready for our consideration. Though there have been some announcements out in the public about ringling brothers by removing circus elephants, we still have that resolution pending and that came from the animal advisory board. I'm sorry? >> If I could just comment on your -- >> Tovo: Sure. >> I just want to thank you once again for your comments from the dais a few days ago. And, you know, we're fortunate here in Austin to have such a well-resourced health and human services department. Of course, we could do more. We'll never say no to more funding. And -- but one of our greatest strengths is our partnerships across the community, especially with [9:21:28 AM] the other cbos and 501 C 3's, community based organizations and the non-profits. But one of the things that you mentioned, which is true is that we, you know -- none of us in this community have enough funding to take care of these issues on our own. And the most important thing that we can all do for one another is leverage our mutual resources with each other. Whether that be organizations here in Austin, with organizations in del valle or organizations in manor and pflugerville. That's what it's really going to take to create a healthy, not only Austin, but a healthy Travis county because we do so much -- we move around so much and some of our children in del valle go to school in Austin and we all know that. And I just wanted to thank you for adding that piece of context to the work we do. But not only to the work we do, but the lives of our residents, especially those that are very young. >> Tovo: Yeah, thank you. I appreciate that. It is really about -- I think when I think about our youth programs, it really comes from a place unfortunately of a scarcity of resources that we have, all of the organizations involved in this landscape could use more resources, including the city. And so we're figuring out how we serve our youth well with the resources we have is really important. >> Houston: I'm going to add to the list the concerns that I have, but fortunately there is some consistency across the four of us. And so I'm not going to repeat those. The ones that I didn't hear was women's reproductive health, which is a concern of mine. I didn't hear anything about the behavioral health services that we offer or contract with. I think the prenatal care -- [9:23:31 AM] the disproportionate number of people -- of people who have health care issues are in my district. And so I don't need to go over that. You all have been presenting that data for the last, what, 10 years, perhaps. This time I hope that we can move on reducing the -- the stroke and diabetes and h.I.v./aids and so we all know what those issues are. Also about -- about just there is no -- no healthy food east of highway 130 nor primary health care. So those are some of the issues, but I think that's across the board, some of the issues that we all are concerned about. So we were just doing this so that we could get a feel, we've not talked with each other. This is our kind of organizational meeting. And so we were just trying to get a feel for where we are on these issues and then how, after we have the briefings today, the next meeting will be the first Monday in April and it's set to begin at -- 4:00? 4:00. And so as we begin to sit the -- to set the agenda for that meeting, we just wanted to air what some of the concerns are of the members of the council committee. Thank you. So if we could move right into the staff briefings. That would be appreciated. >> Councilmember or chair, if I may, make a quick comment on what you just presented. The health and human services department makes most of its divisions what it will focus on based on the data presented, data that's available to it. We do understand that we do have some major issues when it comes to chronic disease management and chronic disease prevention. And the population that suffers the most from chronic disease issues, especially when it comes to mortality and morbidity or early death and disease load is African-Americans. And we like to think that we [9:25:32 AM] can build upon -- if we can find solutions for some of those issues, other populations will be able to benefit from those findings. We've really taken on infant mortality as it pertains to African-American women through our maternal infant outreach program which has been able to be funded through the 1115 waiver project. I think in looking at that program you will be able to learn a lot about those efforts and it has had some success -- a lot of successes in that we've gone from three African-American community health workers to 16, I believe, right now. In Travis county. Which has been a tremendous improvement. It's going to be a longitudinal thing that in order to show improvement in African- American infant more --mortality we need more time. Right now African-American infant mortality is almost three times the rate of Latinas and whites, it's a very complex issue. But we do look at those things and we look at ways we can improve it. So just to say that we are very concerned and we are very interested in these things, but things in the structure of the health and human services department that need to be corrected over time. We would like to talk more about that over time, there's some inherent deficiencies that keep us from being the best that we can be at addressing those issues. >> Houston: Thank you, we look forward to having those conversations with you. >> Madam chair, bob Corona, chief of staff. On that second page we have a list of items, as we've been calling carry-over issues from the previous council. Items that we've been trying to remedy over the last few months. We bring to your attention, the first of those items is municipal appeal issued identification card. As you can see we have a lot of health and human services department staff here to speak to you about these issues, assistant director [9:27:32 AM] Stephanie haven and our staff will be here to talk to you about municipal appeal issued identification cards. We hope to cover these relatively quickly. Bring them to your attention, if we need to take them up at a future council meeting, we would be happy to do that. >> Thank you very much. >> Good morning, I'm Stephanie haven, assistant director of health and human services. >> Good morning, Robert [indiscernible] Manager of health and human services of community based resources which manages the city's social service investments. >> And I'm Adrian stirrup, the program manager of the African-American quality of life unit. >> Houston: If you will pull that closer to you, we can hear you. >> Thank you. >> So in the community services division of the health department is the area in which I'm assistant director. And there were seven resolutions that fell in the community services area. And the first one that we're going to address real quickly is the municipal issued identification card. With that process, Adrian stirrup was the lead for that process and toward the end of the council process there was a final resolution that was issued. So staff have not moved forward because there were all of these resolutions as Mr. Corona mentioned. And so this was one of them. And so where we are, we're at the point where that last resolution was issued and we have not moved forward. And there were several recommendations from that resolution, including a program administrator, a feasibility study, in which you were to add some membership. And so we wanted to kind of [9:29:33 AM] bring that up and just get some direction and kind of move from there and if you have specific questions, Adrienne was the lead, so she would be able to answer those questions, thank you. >> Houston: I think it would be helpful for all of us, if you just give us a brief overview of how this got to the resolutions. >> Okay. So initially, August the 7th was the first resolution that came from council that directed the staff to go out and hold stakeholder meetings. Now, the health and human services provides support to the commission on immigrant affairs. And so -- so they were one of the bodies that were supportive of the id. And so it moved forward from there, as I said Adrienne was assigned from that she conducted several stakeholder meetings and gathered information from those meetings and she compiled that information and then there was a letter that was sent from the director back to council to provide a response from the stakeholder meeting. From that letter, another resolution that came out that gave us additional direction so you get the final letter on December the 4th that came from the director that ended up with the program administrator, as well as the feasibility study. >> Houston: Any questions, councilmember Garza? >> Garza: I was looking at that resolution, it directed the city manager to do a couple of things, but first a question. Do you know how many stakeholder meetings there were? >> We had -- about four. Two of them -- a lot of them were presentations to -- to [9:31:34 AM] relevant commissions, such as the immigrant services network of Austin, the commission on immigrant affairs. We also made a presentation to the human rights commission and then there was an open meeting here in this room at city hall. >> So three? >> [Indiscernible] Human rights, four. >> Garza: Okay. And so the resolution -- and you mentioned two resolutions and I just have one here, so I don't know which one the follow-up on the -- to the second one? >> So the initial resolution was August the 7th of 2014, 2014, 08-07-102. >> What was the next one? >> Then the second resolution 2014, 12-11-225 is the one that you have if you have the one with the feasibility and program administrator, is that the one that you have? >> Garza: I think that I have the first one. In that one it asked for case studies from peer cities. Did -- that was all of those -- >> That was actually included in the letter and we provided some backup information. >> Garza: I'm sorry, could you give me the number for the follow-up resolution? >> The second resolution. >> Garza: Uh-huh. >> Yes. 20-14-12-11-225. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Garza: So going forward there's going to be another letter? Or report? >> Well, at this point, we -- the resolution that came -- the last resolution that I gave you the number for came out and so that was at the end of the last council. So that's why we're here today to seek direction on steps moving forward. >> Garza: Okay, thank you. [9:33:35 AM] >> So I wonder if it's possible to link at backup to today's meeting the letter from staff from December just so we can see what the last battery of recommendations were so that we can figure out what our next step would be. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you. >> Just -- just for information, so that next time someone comes up it would be helpful to give us the genesis of why this is before us. Because you're starting with us like we know what got this resolution or the two resolutions and the letter to us. Some of us do. Mayor pro tem may know that, but we don't know why this came before us. If everybody could kind of frame stuff in contextual history so we know what's going on, then we can look at what the resolutions are and what our next steps are. >> Sounds good, we can do that. >> [Indiscernible]. >> Houston: Good. Okay, I like that. Let's move on to number 2, the social service index. >> Okay. So with the social service index, we were in the end part of the request for application process, which was a solicitation process that we had in 2014 to award social services contracts, which will be awarded in the future September of this year. So as a part of that process, one of the conversations came in one of the meetings and we were in a health and human services committee meeting, like this one, and what happened is that they thought about, okay, how can we look at -- like a cost of living [9:35:36 AM] increase, you know, are there any types of ways of how we can continuously maybe look at providing funding to social services, but also to health and human services as a department. And so as a part of that, there came out a -- a resolution on June the 26th, and the resolution number is 2014-01-26-078. That particular resolution directed the city manager to develop a recommendation on whether the funding levels of the health and human services department and social service contract had sufficiently met the needs of the communities. It also had, you know, several other pointers that it made, just to kind of explore you know looking at the investment, whether we needed to look at prevention, intervention, treatment services as well. And so a committee, as a result of that resolution, a committee was formed, which included members from the county, the city as well, one voice -- one voice of central Texas. And so this committee met several times to look at quite a few things, but how to basically pull together an index which would provide a formula in order to move -- look at the need for the health and human services budget as a whole. So that is one of the resolutions that came out. And so that -- the last resolution that came out, basically, was more of a -- it was more of a policy resolution because, you know, toward the end of it, it directed the city manager, basically, that the council establish a budget that required the city manager to develop as part of the annual budget process [9:37:39 AM] for council consideration and an annual increase to existing social service, workforce development contracts in an amount equal to or greater than the increases of the consumer price index and an annual increase in the health and human services department as well. So it wanted to take into effect the cost of living and it kind of -- health care, fuel, that type of things. So that's the second resolution that we're looking at and we're just wanting to seek direction for that one. >> Houston: Any questions on social service index? >> Troxclair: I guess I'm unclear on what the requested action -- what -- where we are. What the next steps, would or wouldn't be? >> So since this particular one just basically asks that as we're moving forward during the budget process, it, you know, it was really specific and I think it probably would be for us to make sure that you're offices had a chance to review this one and look at it. And we can just provide that information to you and you review it. >> I think, councilmember, as the previous committee and then consequently the council when they passed a resolution had hoped that you all might consider a social service index so that our spending on those contracts keep up with the cost of living, that sort of thing. And even the departmental budget to some extent. It's something for -- that they wanted the next council to consider as they deliberate the next review of the social services contracts that we have. >> Go ahead. >> Garza: If we can -- this is kind of like the first one, too. [9:39:40 AM] In the backup it mentioned one resolution and then apparently there was a follow-up resolution that's not mentioned here. Can we get that resolution, too, added to the backup? >> Yes, yes. >> Garza: Thanks. >> Houston: See, I just forgot what I was going to ask. Mayor pro tem? >> Tovo: Thanks. And I guess that I would say likewise. If there were letters back from staff, those would be really helpful, too. But I just want to say this is -- I'm really happy to see this piece and be reminded of it because during the last couple of budget cycles, there have been discussions about we have a way, the city has had a way of typically of adding police as the population increases. There's a formula that's been used. Every year in the budget it comes to council with those officers proposed to be added as a result of a formula. And so them is -- this index is in part to address, to see whether that can be done for social services, too, because we know as the population increases, and particularly increases, you know -- where we have this growing economic disparity, how can we as a city be really cognizant of what it would take to try to address that need out in the community. So that discussion has happened with health and human services and that's resulted in the resolutions that we're talking about here. We've had a similar conversation within libraries and parks, too, you know, what would it look like if we quantified every year how the population increase should result in different kinds of budgetary decisions. So I look -- I'm a little unclear, too, on sort of what our next step would be to make sure that this gets factored into the budget process. So thanks for the willingness to provide us with those next batch of documents. >> Houston: And I think, mayor pro tem, that this is an example of why we needed to have this meeting, so that they would know what else they needed to share with us. [9:41:42 AM] >> Okay. >> Troxclair: I would be curious to know, I appreciate mayor pro tem bringing up the example of the police. I guess that comes to council with a recommendation of an increase based on our population. Do you know or could you get us the information about if there are any other city departments or city programs that are tied to the consumer price index? >> We can look for that information just to verify. At this point, I don't think so. But I will verify that information for you. >> Troxclair: And I would also be curious, just going off of the police example, it sounded like that was a recommendation? But not a mandate or requirement. And so I would be interested -- this sounds like a requirement. And so I would be interested in -- in I guess the differences there. Just more -- just more information about if this is being done in other -- in other programs in the city. >> Houston: Okay. Should we move on to living wage? >> So, mayor, at the time mayor pro tem Sheryl Cole and laura Morrison wanted to look at how the city's living wage applied to social service contracts and so with that they issued a resolution and that resolution basically wanted to look at the quality of life, but it also talked about poverty as well. But looking at the fact of -- with the social service contracts, will any of those apply to the [9:43:42 AM] current living wage amount. And so staff just, you know, basically -- we are looking at that. The purchasing office does have a criteria for living wage and so that is one of the ones that we're looking at for direction to provide that report back to the council is what we would do is provide that report back. >> Houston: So it would be back to the council and not the subcommittee? >> Well, we would bring it back here. With the new structure change, we would bring it back here and kind of seek direction from here with that report. >> Houston: That brings me to the one that I forgot just a few minutes ago. >> Okay. >> Houston: Of the ones that we have gone through, 1 through 3, they have not come back to council for adoption, but all funnel back to us. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Houston: Just wanted to make sure. Any questions on 3? Let's move on to 4. If you would tell everybody what rfa is? >> Yelp. Okay. .-- >> Yes, ma'am. The city, health department we have a solicitation process that is -- that is either ran through the health department or through the purchasing and in this particular instance, we worked with the purchasing department to conduct the solicitation and the department did another request for proposal about five years ago. And so we're getting on a cycle. So just to kind of give you that history. We're putting ourselves on a cycle. And so I'm going to turn this one over to Robert and let him kind of walk you through the social service [9:45:43 AM] just briefly, rfa process, and then we'll move back to the actual resolution. >> Good morning. So as Stephanie, Ms. Hayden said, we did a request for applications last year and prior council approved contracts on the November 20th of 2014, those contracts will start September 1st of 2015 with an annual dollar amount of approximately $16.2 million for all, I believe, 36 total contracts or total programs that are being funded through there. We did that process in collaboration with the purchasing department, as well as we included other stakeholders in the community during the -- during the request for application planning. We met with other funders in the area, like the county, United Way, St. David's foundation, some other major funders in the area. And then during the evaluation process, we included other stakeholders as well, similar to the county, other subject matter experts in the area, that evaluated those particular applications, issue area, which range from early childhood all the way through seniors. We did it across a live continuum. So -- a life continuum, four categories, early child hood, youth development, seniors and elders with developmental disabilities. We further broke down into issue areas, that we felt were more important that our historical budget is separated into, which is workforce development, basic needs, homelessness and housing services and mental and behavioral health. So we basically had those seven issue area groups and had subject matter experts [9:47:43 AM] inclusive of city staff that range from health department, neighborhood housing department, parks and recreation, as well as economic development or -- department as well. And we're in the process right now of negotiating those contracts and starting to get those processed through, so we'll have those in place on September 1st of this year. >> Houston: You go ahead. >> This might have been in your response, but I zoned out there a second. Has there been -- have you all done anything to see if you can provide resources to small non-profits that are trying to navigate this process? Seems like they might be left out of the process sometimes because it's such an intense process. >> So there is -- there are a couple of resolutions, one of them addresses the -- the million dollars in which we're short for this rfa, request for application, process. There is a second resolution that addresses a stakeholder feedback process. And I believe that you are addressing the one with the stakeholder feedback process and we're going to address that while we're here as well. We want to talk about that as well. Is that the one that you're looking at? >> Garza: Yeah, I thought that's the one that we were talking about. >> Yes, yes, yes, yeah. >> Garza: Okay. >> I wanted him to kind of give the background to just kind of bring us back up to point and yes, we are going to talk about that. >> To add to that, during this request for application process, when we were planning for it, we held preproposal meetings and invited potential applicants that would be applying for that to give us input regarding how they, you know, feel the process should be structured, what they feel should be going into that solicitation. And then any -- we gave them all the information that they would need to actually navigate the system to be able to apply for that funding. Then once we released that funding, it was out on the [9:49:44 AM] street actually for a longer period of time than is Normal city -- I guess policy. We had you the out on the center it for approximately two months. During that time, we held a couple what we call pre-bid meetings, which was an open forum for any potential applicant, once that solicitation document was out on the street, to come meet with city staff, as well as inclusive of health department purchasing staff, to ask questions. We went through everything in that request for application and explained exactly what we were looking to purchase and went through the process of actually what an agency would need to do to apply for funding. So we tried to be as inclusive. We emailed that out to -- to -- lost count of the distribution list that we used but we used both internal city purchasing distribution list as well as those that are maintained by the health department for agencies that request for -- request to be on a list to be notified of future funding. And then we sent that out to our community partners so they can distribute that more broadly, such as the community action advancement network and one way central Texas to get that out as much as possible and hopefully solicit people to participate in that process. So we'll be able to procure as many services as possible, both from small, medium and large organizations. >> Thank you. >> Houston: Mayor pro tem? >> Tovo: I think, also, it strikes me that several of the contracts are also collaborations of larger organizations with much smaller ones. So while we only have 36 contracts, some -- I mean, that represents a large, large, number of smaller organizations as well. Is that -- is that correct? >> Absolutely. So there are about -- I'm going off the top of my head, Robert can correct me -- maybe about 10 or so [9:51:46 AM] collaborations, so it includes even though as he's saying 36 programs, it's up to about 40 agencies that are actually providing some type of service. Maybe a little more. Because one of the collaborations has about eight partners. So -- so the collaborations can be just a fiscal agent and they are -- they have several non-profits that are providing a particular service, so I'll give you an example. Caritas is an example. They are the fiscal agent for best single source plus, but they have about 10 partners from AIDS services of Austin to meals on wheels to -- to family eldercare. So they could be different types of providers, any baby can, on a continuum. So it is an array. >> Mayor pro tem, you make a very good point. I think we even did something during the process to incentivize by awarding points I believe during the collaborations. Did we do that through both processes? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> So absolutely very good point, thank you. >> Yes, we did incentivize or give evaluation -- not necessarily preference to collaborations, but they were awarded bonus points. But at the same time we did award bonus points to agencies that were not part of a collaboration for meeting additional self-sufficiency goals, which is what the solicitation was based off of or providing services to individuals in other life continuum categories. So we didn't want to award bonus points to one particular part of the applicant and not to make it available to the others. So we had a two-pronged approach to evaluation criteria. >> I guess my only question is the agencies, the providers, the non-profits, pretty well stayed the same over time. I mean, we -- we've -- how do we evaluate their effectiveness in the community? And where do the people that [9:53:46 AM] they serve -- because we're talking about the people we give money to. So where do we find out what the outcomes are for the people, if they are delivering the services as expected and if we're getting our return on investment? I just learned that somebody said roi, I went what is that? [Laughter] Now, I've got a new phrase. So how do we know that once we start letting these contracts out? >> So with all of our social service contracts, the department put in place some time back a -- a contract compliance unit, as well as additional contract compliance monitoring, through the -- so if you think about it as a two-part process. The contract managers, every month the agencies do the -- the contract managers do desk reviews, and so they check. So with the performance that comes in, we check the performance. But in addition to that, we do site views. And we go out and we look at the data that they have submitted for their reports and we check that information with their records as well. The agencies themselves, most of them do client satisfaction surveys. And so they can collect that information from their clients from about the satisfaction that they have. Within the contract process, there is that process where if the agencies are not pleased, they can, you know, make their kind of complaints through the agency, but they can ultimately make complaints to the city as a funder. So those are the processes that are in place. Now, with the contract compliance unit and that's not in -- it's a separate area. It's under the direction of Kim Maddox as the [9:55:46 AM] administrator of that division, which is our financial human resources area, so it's a totally separate from where all of the contracts are, that area in the event that we see that performance is an issue, if there's any other types of concerns that we have, then we'll elevate that to that unit and they go out and they do a more thorough check, just to make sure. And we have a level system in order to -- if agencies are not compliant, which can end as an end result with their contract being terminated. All of that is in the terms and conditions of the contract. >> Houston: So I asked that question because we do a really good job in having all of that information, I'm sure, on site someplace with the agency. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Houston: But it's always in Spanish and English and because my district has some other languages spoken, there's a barrier. >> Okay. >> Houston: So people really don't know if there's a number to complain or say I didn't get the kinds of services that I needed or even where to go for services. >> Okay. >> Houston: So I think -- I've got a lot of questions about how we're making sure we're making the best use of our money and at least the word is getting out to the people. We've got so many refugees now and I know we can't do everything in every language. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Houston: But we've got to do a better job of making sure that the people who need the services are getting them. >> Now, one of the things that we've done with the contracts, and then also the department is actually rolling it out as well, is that we have placed an emphasis on culturally linguistic and appropriate services. And so that information comes from the federal government, the office of minority health. And so with those we -- we [9:57:48 AM] make sure with the contracts, where all of the information is, you know, you're communicating in their language, you're providing outreach and services where they can understand it and where it's culturally appropriate. And so that is a requirement of the contracts and so when these contracts are affected September 1, that was a part of the request for application process. With the department, for our accreditation, we have recently executed a policy that is looking at that for our department as a whole, because we are aware that there are increases in the number of individuals, like mandarin Chinese, Vietnamese, the Asian population that will need those additional services. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Also, additionally to respond to your question or comment about making sure that we're investing wisely, making the best use of our resources. An evaluation component of this previous solicitation was prior performance, not only with city, you know, contracts, but with other grants as well. So we'll make sure that the organization that if they are awarded funding has the capacity and ability and proven track record to provide that service effectively and efficiently, and so there was evaluation criteria based on prior performance, both within and external to the city. >> Houston: Thank you. So ... I'm sorry, councilmember troxclair? >> Troxclair: I apologize if I'm a little maybe slow this morning. I'm just confused about this item. >> Okay. >> Troxclair: So it says the city manager is directed to -- to hold process to determine if grant writing would be of benefit for the city. But it sounds like we're already doing. >> Well, maybe let me give a little context to this [9:59:50 AM] resolution. This is the 2014, 1120 that you're looking at. >> Troxclair: Mm-hmm. >> This is the stakeholder feedback process that the counsel directed us to conduct after the request for application was complete. And so every year the department -- I mean, not every year, but after every request for application large solicitation process, the department was already imposing already going toconduct this process. The council provided specific additional areas they wanted us to cover. And so the ones that are here, there are several things that we currently do as a department, as far as social services is concerned, but because of the feedback from the applicants during the process, there were some specific things that they wanted to make sure that the department looked into. And so this is one of them that we're currently working on now, pulling this process together, and we just hadn't totally moved it forward because we were, again, looking for direction. But we've developed kind of the structure for the process of the stakeholder meeting, I mean, stakeholder process, and that's one of the elements that you're pointing out, that we're going to include as we're moving forward. >> And you are correct. We did do some elements of that, of the grant writing to, you know, try to shepherd folks through the process or agencies and inform them of how -- you know, to apply for funding. But we want to see if we can do a better job or how we can improve that process to make it more inclusive. So, yes, we are doing some [10:01:51 AM] components but we'll try to see how we can improve. >> Troxclair: So how long has the city provided grant-writing services? >> We don't provide grant-writing services. But what we will do is we will provide technical assistance so when agencies are preparing to, you know, be a part of the solicitation process, and it's more like one on one. So if a small nonprofit agency contacts me or Robert, we will bring them in, and we'll walk them through the requirements to have a city contract. And so those are the things that we do. >> Troxclair: And then when it says "Improve the next process slated for about 2020," what is that referring to? What doesn't happen again until 2020? >> So there's going to be another solicitation process in 2020, which we would, you know, start a couple years out. We try to start a couple of years out, so by 2018 we'll start another process solicitation. >> Troxclair: Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> With this committee, I might add. It would start with you guys. >> Garza: I know you touched on this in your initial comments, but that would be helpful for us newbie, so because basically the way these contracts are brought up, it's not, like -- well, during genetic discussions where the fire department it's yearly, we look at the next year, next year. But this one is done differently, right? Health and human services is done -- what's that? >> These were six-year contracts. >> Garza: Could you kind of talk about how that's different from, like, other departments? >> Okay. >> Garza: So my understanding, which is not a full understanding, is it's a huge, big package that we approve that has little, like -- this much is going to you, this much is going to you. >> Absolutely. >> Garza: Can you talk about that a little bit more? [10:03:52 AM] >> So when we move forward with the rca, it will have a backup that shows a list of all the agencies, how much funding each agency will receive for their base contract, as well as their total amount for that contract. So when we move forward with that, we're moving forward with a -- with a six-year, so it's a base contract of three years and then there's annual renewals. And so we would not come back until, you know, it's getting close to time for another solicitation, like in 2018. The only within why you would see other smaller contracts that would come back or different contracts, you know, that were not a part -- there were some contracts that were not a part of the solicitation process. So you would see other contracts that will come back because they were not a part of that process, and they are out of renewals. And we're looking to do more renewal options or a new contract. >> Councilmember, we're just talking about the human services social services contracts. The department of course has a lot more contracts than what we're talking about here. We're talking here of course about the social services contracts under Stephanie Hayden. >> You'll also find the contracts are for the sake of continuity and because of the services that they provide, which a lot of them are basic needs and just making sure that the families develop a relationship with service providers and, again, the need for the continuity of those services. >> And last thing to add, these -- the funding for these contracts are approved during each budget cycle, during the council adoption process. So we do enter into these six-year contracts, but if council does not fund those fully, they do run the risk to [10:05:53 AM] being terminated to lack of funding and those are terms that are in the contract, that future funding is contingent upon council approval of the budget process. So even though we do go to council for a six- year approval if the budget funds aren't approved during the budget adoption process those do run the risk of not being funded. >> Houston: Can you talk to us briefly about the million dollars that we're short? >> Yes, ma'am. So when we were going through the process of looking at, you know, how can we -- we had a request of, what, 29 million -- we have a request of $32 million and we only had $13.8 million available, and so the -- at the time the -- the committee at the time went kind of back and forth to look at the funding. We had meetings with the agencies to look where there were areas where they could reduce their budgets. Several of the agencies did reduce their budgets. But we still were relatively short with funding. And so the incoming -- the council at the time decided, you know, one, they had provided a million dollars for the 14-15 budget, which we could add to that process, which would have brought us up to 14.8 million but then there was some planning dollars in the health department of $250,000 that they added but we were still a million dollars short. So the -- they took it to the full council to pass for the million dollars. So we are a million dollars short with the -- for the [10:07:54 AM] funding of the contracts. We'll be able to execute the contracts in September, but as we move forward for the next cycle, we will be a million dollars short. >> And so -- so, basically, during this current budget -- >> Houston: So is that coming out of your paycheck? [Laughter] >> I wish. I'll talk with Carlos and Stephanie to see if I can get my paycheck to cover that. [Laughter] >> So during this current budget process, council added a million dollars of ongoing funding to the social service contracts. So the previous public health and human services subcommittee decided to bank or hold onto what we currently have this year, not spend it, save it for the rfa process, which the -- the request for application contracts that were supposed to start next year. So it would increase the funding. So we started with 13.8 during the process they added a million dollars ongoing so that brought us up to 14.8. We're saving this current year's funding to add on so that's basically one year of funding. It's not that ongoing funding. So that brought us up to 15.8 and then we located some planning dollars that was that $250,000, which brought us right around that $16 million mark. So there's that current year of funding that we bank. We're holding it to start these contracts so that will get us all the way through fy16, which this million dollars we will need to fully fund the contract starting in fy17. >> Tovo: So it sounds like the options before us are to consider whether it's appropriate to direct the city manager to add that additional funding -- to look for that additional funding and add it into fiscal year 2017. >> That is correct. [10:09:55 AM] That is not a staff ask request. That's something for the council to direct. >> Tovo: Absolutely. That's something that was a council initiative, to add extra funding in part to address some of the issues we talked about before, this huge gap, huge need, the communications from our social service providers about the tremendous needs out in the community. We were able to patch together enough funding for next year, but in fiscal year 2017 those contracts are going to suffer. They will not have the funding they need to carry forward the programs that they have undertaken unless this council comes up with that additional money? >> Yes. >> Tovo: Okay, thank you. >> Houston: So the concern for me is that where does the current council come up with those additional funds? And if we're talking about ongoing dollars, we're talking ongoing from now on. So as you present the information, as you begin to gather it, could you tell us how long these contracts have -- have they received money from the city? And how much that money has been? Because I am a social service person but I'm also -- I don't sit at my kitchen table and write a check. And so we were -- we're put in a position to have to find money to ensure that the pledge of the million dollars keeps going on and on and on and on. And there are other things that are coming up that we also need to attend to. I know you guys hear this all the time, but I just want you to know that I'm going to be needing some more information about where we can get that money from because I don't know it and how many more of these are we going to have come in, saying, you know, we need additional money for the huge social service needs that the city has. And maybe we need to start looking at different ways to approach that. [10:11:55 AM] >> Okay. So just real quick, the process for four -- we're waiting for a report? Is that what's next? For the -- for the solution that asked for -- >> For the stakeholder process? >> Garza: Mm-hmm. >> Yes. So we will put together -- we've started the initial part of that. So we're working on kind of moving that all the way through and then in result will be a report. >> Garza: Okay, thanks. >> Mm-hmm. >> We can go on to 5. >> Which one is that? >> Houston: Resolution supporting president Obama. >> Yes. So that one is pretty high level. Mainly -- the main thing with that one is, as I said earlier, we support the commission on immigrant affairs, and so the commission will move forward resolutions to the full council about items that they have in place. And at the time there was an earlier resolution that the council came up with that addressed being supportive of actions that president Obama would take in regards to immigration. And so that one is more as -- you know, as the council moves along, it just kind of directed the current council -- the past council to be supportive of immigration reform because that was connected to immigration reform. So this one is more just kind of bringing this to your attention, [10:13:56 AM] not so much that there needs to be arbitration but this one was more so just bringing it to your attention. >> Houston: So action has already been taken? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Houston: Okay. >> By the past council. >> Houston: Any questions? Okay. Number 6, mental -- okay. >> Troxclair: So what kind of practical or tangible implications or results come from this kind of resolution? >> Well, with the past council -- I'm going bily, but I'm going to try to answer your question. But with the past council, there were a couple of resolutions and there were a couple of press conferences that were held, and there was a letter that was sent from -- let me get specific information for you because I don't want to mess this one up. >> Troxclair: Okay. >> I can give you the tangibles as a result. It didn't really fall, like, within my division but because we support the commission, I can reach that staff and she can give me the specific tajability to get to you. >> Troxclair: Okay. Yeah, I guess I'm trying to understand if this is kind of more of a symbolic show of support or if there is something specific that comes as a result? >> I think this one is a policy issue that is -- you're right, councilmember troxclair, that oftentimes council will pass something in support of something policywise that the staff is not so much involved in. We bring this to your attention because, again, we're a liaison to a council appointed body, commission on immigrant affairs, [10:15:57 AM] second time we've mentioned this particular body. The council appointed bodies like this one generally go directly to you for action, but it's a resolution that the staff have been working on, you're right, it's something I think the policymakers, the council is in support of and not so much for the staff to take action on. >> Like, for example, the welcoming cities initiative, that was one of the resolutions that moved forward, which allows the city to support that initiative, which is currently underway. The conference was a few weeks ago. There's going to be a report that's going to come forward. So that's just an example of kind of one of the initiatives that the council was supporting. >> Houston: Thank you. >> Mm-hmm. >> Houston: Mental health stakeholder process. >> Okay. So the council passed a resolution that mayor pro tem and Riley wanted to -- they directed the city manager to work with the stakeholder group to look at discharges from the Austin state hospital. And, basically, they wanted to look at that because they wanted to make sure that there was continuity from when clients were being released in order to prevent them from being homeless. And so that is more so just pulling together stakeholders, having the conversation, and then the department would provide a report back to the committee. >> Houston: Have you started the stakeholder process? >> Actually, yes, we have. [10:17:57 AM] We've had some conversations. We've had conversations with integral care, we've had some conversations with Austin state hospital. Just from the -- you know, from the provider perspective. So we have started those conversations. So if there's, you know, anyone else that you feel that's important for us to include in the process, please share that information because I understand behavioral health was one of your initiatives that you're interested in. >> Houston: Correct. And those are the major players. But, also, when our veterans come back, they have behavioral health needs and they're often homeless, as well as salespeople who come out of the criminal justice city manager, they can't get housing, they can't get a job and they can't get an education. So they end up on the streets so those are populations that are part of that stakeholder, some with mental health issues, that's why they got in trouble, drug and alcohol folks. >> Madam chair, we do integrate a lot with the activists and entities in our community that deal with those kind of issues. I think there might even be some council representation on a psychiatric services stakeholder group. I believe that the city manager, Burt L. Attends on occasion and Stephanie Hayden as well. One of y'all mentioned we have a contractual relationship with atc Austin county integral care, million plus, we'd be happy to have them down here for a briefing to the committee. I think we should do that, they're one of our most important partners in the community. >> Houston: Right. I think it's a larger issue than that. I don't think the city can actually fix this problem on its own. It's a state-level problem so what happens, not to belabor the issue, is that people come into the Austin state hospital from surrounding counties and then there's no way to move them back out and have the wrap around services in those counties where they live to be able to move them back home and so they end [10:19:58 AM] up here in our jails and emergency rooms and on our streets. Thank you so much. >> You're welcome. >> Houston: Any questions about that one? Okay. Social services. Is this the same million dollar fund or a different million dollar fund. [Laughter] >> No. >> Houston: Number seven is the same million dollar fund we just finished talking about? >> Yes, ma'am, it is. Yes, ma'am. So this is one of the resolutions that we, you know, briefly spoke to -- spoke about earlier, which we wanted to look at the -- which, you know, was the policy one which wanted to look at the department -- the investment for the social services investment as well as the health and human services investment. Within that resolution it gives you -- you know, it provides a specific goal that the council wanted to move forward. Okay, I'm ready. So with the health and human -- with the social service contracts there was a funding gap of $15.763 million funding gap for the social service contracts. And that was based upon unfunded requests from 2010 and 2014 competitive processes. So that resolution did speak to, you know, specific funding [10:22:00 AM] requests. But then, also, there was an investing -- an investment in the health and human services department of an additional 12,000,840 -- so $12.8 million. 123.84870. -- 12.84870. So we can make sure to -- make sure you all have copies of this, but, basically, it moves to within the next three to five years -- it directed the city manager to develop an implementation plan to reach these goals. And so there would need to be, you know, a report that would need to come back as well. So we wanted to seek direction on this particular resolution that was passed. >> Houston: So have you started working on that one? >> No, we have not, ma'am. >> Houston: So when will that -- when will some kind of response from the committee have to -- what kind of time line are we looking at? >> Well, this is one of the ones where we wanted to seek direction from the committee about next steps. >> Right. And, madam chair, we can take as long as you need. Burt L. Has directed us to work with y'all. We understand this is an initial review of some of the issues that have been going on for some time so we'd be happy to bring it back to the next meeting or following meeting at your leisure, at your discretion. >> Houston: And it may be that individual members of the committee would want to have some conversation because those are big dollars, and how do we scrub that to make sure that we're being as efficient as we can with the meager dollars that we have. And so I'm sure that there are people who would like to have -- including myself -- more information about where does the [10:24:00 AM] 12 million come from. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Houston: How did we get to that point? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Houston: Okay. Any other questions? Let's move on to temporary food permits. Councilmember troxclair has an interest in that. >> Thank you, madam chair. We're going to have our -- our health acting division manager come to the podium to speak to that. Hopefully we can cover this relatively quickly as y'all took council action I believe at the last council meeting. >> Houston: Mm-hmm you're good. You cut it off again. There you go. >> Green light up here. Good morning. This is Vince D., environmental health services division, assistant division manager. Regarding temporary food events, maybe just a little bit of history, context. The environmental health services division inspects food establishments of all types, fixed establishments, mobile vending units and temporary events, as you can see from driving the streets this morning, there are a lot of temporary events going on right now. The cost of service analysis that was conducted in summer of 2013 was directed by downtown budget office and we completed that with our health and human services offices budget office and it was overseeing -- or reviewed by the corporate budget. We wanted to make sure that we weren't overcharging for any of our services and fees and found that because fees had not been raised for many years, back to [10:26:03 AM] 2003 for some, 2006 bore others, that we were significantly undercharging. It is -- there is no requirement to charge at cost of service so we just can't charge over the cost of service amount. So that cost of service was submitted, and there was a significant increase in the temporary event permitting fees. The previous fee structure was based on the length or -- and is currently still based on the length of the event. It's not so much the size of the event or the type of vendor. It's based solely on the duration of the event. A one to two day event was previously $35 for a permit, three to five day event permit would be $70 and a permit for a six to 14 day event would -- previously was $90. With the cost of service analysis, the fee is based on services provided, and for a one to five day event we were anticipating one inspection, one on-site inspection, as well as all the permit processing, cashiering, record management and so forth so the cost of service was equal for what was previously a one to two day event or three to five day event, they both came out to be $98. So as a matter of -- okay. So the fee went up to $98 for a one to five day event and $145 for a six to 14 day event. And so at this point, council -- the last council meeting recommended that we roll those back to the fy14 level and we're in the process of making that happen right now. [10:28:05 AM] >> Houston: Councilmember? >> Troxclair: About how many of these permits are issued every year? >> In fy14 we had a little over 5,000 booth permits issued. And that's about 2 million events, constituting -- each event has multiple books booths so there were over 2,000 events and total of 5,000 booth permits. Fy13 was an unusually high year and for this year we're speculating about the 2014 level again. >> Troxclair: So can you give us some examples of what kind of events we're talking about that get these food permits? >> Sure. Examples are the pecan street festival, currently in town right now we have south by southwest and there are a lot of places that are trying to put up temporary booths and sell food. We have the star Texas rodeo, rodeo Austin is in town right now. That's a very large temporary event. We have concessionaires coming into town, I think there's close to 70 permits for the rodeo, and over 150 for south by southwest, temporary events alone. Of course the mobile vendors are very active by south by southwest as well so there's other permitting and other types of establishments participating in those events. But we have small events like church festivals, where they're opening to the public, fundraisers. Softball team, optimist club things, school events. So there's many, many different types of events. Some are small, some large, some are single hive day events and some last up to 14 days. >> Vince, can you explain very quickly for the committee members what it is we do in exchange for the permit? What public service are we conduct. >> For the cost of service it's -- the services we're providing are the permitting, the review of the applications, the cashiering, processing, record management. But in addition to that, it's [10:30:06 AM] the food safety inspections that we're conducting on-site. So this is our health inspectors that are going out to inspect the location to make sure that they have the proper hand washing setups, wear washing setups and cooking food so the proper food temperature to keep people from getting sick. It is an important function, especially this time of year with south by southwest, so many out of town vendors coming into town to service the public, we want to make sure that the folks attending are kept safe and prevent food born illness. >> Troxclair: So if a food truck -- does a food truck have to get a permit if they're going to a neighborhood event? >> Generally, no. A food truck would be permitted as a mobile vending community it's an annual perm permit so they're able to continue to operate. >> Troxclair: Okay. I just -- I mean, the fees seem relatively reasonable for some of the -- from -- for some of the bigger events but I have a lot of neighborhoods in my district that, as a way to promote community, as a way to promote public safety, are having more local, you know, neighborhood -- chili cook offs or whatever it is. I've [10:32:39 AM] >> I think y'all opined about the impact fee committee, but in the meantime we're following your direction and we'll roll back those fees to what it was previously that -- we're currently doing that right now with our it folks. >> Garza: I guess I just wanted to be clear on, I thought we rolled it back and sent it to committees to discuss, correct? Was it sent to more than the health and human services committee? >> I think y'all had suggested -- you weren't quite sure, I think you suggested the impact fee committee but I'm not sure that's the most appropriate committee. >> Garza: Okay. >> Good morning, councilmembers, Burt L., assistant city manager. The direction that we had on the written information was the impact fee, which was a little bit unclear to us, but it seems it gets very appropriate to this chi and possibly audit and finance because it has not only the health aspect of it because this is where we have the actual oversight of the permits, but then also the possibly audit and finance because it has a fee structure. But I know the direction that we had was the impact fee committee or the group. I don't recall the specifics associated with that. >> Troxclair: Because I have the ordinance right here and I'm assuming this is the right one and it says -- doesn't say anything about -- it says council directs city manager to direct analysis and [indiscernible] For any subsequent increase for fees to the fees -- human services subcommittee. Doesn't say anything about -- is it is this the right one? >> Yes, I apologize. I should have reference that's point. I thought there was a recommendation. Mayor the mayor pro tem I believe was the one that suggested that. So . . . >> Garza: Okay. So just to know where we are right now, I'm assuming -- I know this is just upcoming, what's coming so we're going to vet this at another time? >> Houston: Mm-hmm. >> Garza: Okay. And are we doing that before you come back to us with a recommendation or are we doing [10:34:40 AM] that after? >> Houston: It's my understanding that at the last council meeting the council already took a vote on what to do. So they're in the process. My understanding of rolling back to the precost of service survey that was done and that's what will be operated until something new comes before the council. Am I correct? >> That's correct, councilmember. I think what we'll be happy to do is this is just a quick overview of it. So we're going to pull it back to the year previous rates and then have a broader discussion about, okay, do we want to look at the -- you know, the information that was provided in the cost of study, do we want to look at maybe smaller groups and maybe keep that rate at a certain level, do we want to keep everybody where they're at right now? You know, so I think it gives you the opportunity to think of this issue, look at this issue overall and determine, you know, what is the best course of action "And my suggestion would be, because it does have a financial impact to the department, keep in mind that when we presented this cost of study and these fees associated with it, it directly correlated to staffing. In other words we hired additional staff. So it does have an impact. And so I would suggest that anything that we look at would be possibly in line with the budget for the start of this next fiscal year that will be coming up. I think we'll have to figure out, you know, the reduce -- the reduction in the revenues, even though they're correlated back to actually expenses, but I think longer term impacts could be a problem. >> Garza: Okay. I'm sorry. >> Houston: Go ahead. >> Garza: I guess I'm just trying to figure out what the next step is because if the next step is you bringing us a recommendation before we have that discussion -- or -- are we having the discussion and then you're going to bring a recommendation? If that's the case I want to throw out there that if there's a way to separate nonprofit temporary use permits from the ones that are at south by southwest or the [10:36:40 AM] ones that are at the big events to -- because if it's selling hot dogs at the church one Sunday, I'd hate for them to have that same fee as someone sitting outside somewhere downtown during south by southwest. So that's just a concern. >> Yes. That's correct. Generally we'll formulate some sort of recommendation for your review and for the manager's review and then we'll hash it out here at the committee. It will certainly come to your committee before anything is forwarded or vetted. >> Yeah, I'd just like to add, as chief sanitarian Lopez said during the city council hearing or -- the council session, there's a real cost of sending a sanitary into any location at the city, and city revenues pay for that sanitarian's salary. That's just the truth of the matter. Now, of course we have sympathy and empathy for churches and other small nonprofits. We understand the reality of that person's situation. But the sanitarian still needs to be paid at the end of the day. That's just the reality of it all. >> Houston: So with that, I guess my next -- my question is how much, when we rolled this back to precost of service fees, are we going to have to pay people back if they've already paid us? >> I think that's part of the discussion that we would -- we could bring back for you, councilmember. I think in the fiscal note, when that item was presented to city council, you know, we would have to calculate what that temporary loss of revenue for the remainder of the fiscal year, whenever it gets implemented. I think part of it is looking at how soon can we trigger the change back to the '14 rates. If that's within a month we would calculate that from there [10:38:41 AM] to the end of the fiscal year or until some other decision is made. So what we would suggest is -- I would suggest is that we bring this item back, for y'all's discussion, exactly the points that councilmember troxclair and councilmember Garza said if there's specific groups that you want to make sure that we're considering, how can we work with that? And then come back with some very thoughtful ways of how we might be able to approach it. And then start formulating the recommendation. >> Houston: Thank you. Mayor pro tem. >> Tovo: Yeah, I just wanted to speak to a couple points that have been raised. So this was an item that came forward from two councilmembers on the past council to address just the issues that councilmember Garza and councilmember troxclair raised, the increasing number of concerns all of us were hearing from the small nonprofits. So it's my understanding that when we took action to rescind the 2014 it was postponed to our last agenda, when we took action to rescind those 2014 fees was a semry measure and the request was that it go to the impact advisory commission, which is a citizen group that looks at our impact fees in water and other areas and they've done some very good past work, and we thought they might be able to provide us with some kind of general guidance, look at the cost of service analysis, figure out if there's anyway -- I think the -- I will just say, as somebody who may have made the motion but certainly spoke to it if I didn't, I would like to see a plan that allows us to recover the cost of service overall, absolutely. You know, we did increase the budget. We increased the fees and the budget so that you could hire staff and we want to cover our cost. The intent would be as far as I'm concerned to cover our cost of service but see if you can distribute those increases a little differently or if what's necessary is a more phased [10:40:41 AM] approach as we've done with everything from valet parking to parks and reaction fees, you know, typically when there's a big jump in fees it's a little more phased approach it hit some of our smallest groups really hard. So it was my understanding we were going to take a month or two, I think we looked at our calendars of when the impact fee advisory group was going to meet, they were going to discuss it at one or two of their meetings and then come back to council for some recommendation, understanding, as you do, I think, of what the concerns are for our smaller nonprofits, but that we wouldn't let it go -- it was never my intent to let this go to our next fiscal year. I think the cost of that was $330,000 or something like that but that for a couple months we could afford to take a look at it and see if there's an overall approach that could be less impactful forever our smallest organizations that were facing the biggest increase. Percentage increase. >> Okay. >> Troxclair: Did you want to respond to what she said? >> No. I mean, that's definitely a plan that we'll move forward with. >> Troxclair: Okay. I just have a general question. When does -- where is the line where an event needs a temporary food permit? Like, when does me having a barbecue in my backyard and inviting all the neighbors versus -- not need a permit versus something we also have a barbecue at. >> Good question, little trick wiy. The state rules and city code do not have a definition for what's a private event versus what's a public event. However, we will say that our -- historically and we do have a policy in place for temporary events as to what we could a general guideline for not permitting private events, such as wedding receptions, so what we -- we use the guideline that [10:42:43 AM] is an event that is strictly invitation only and there is no advertising to the general public, it's a closed event, private event, then it's not considered a permitted temporary event. If the event is open to the general public or tied in any way to the general public, then it's considered an open exponent and it would require permitting. An example is churches, they provide food their congregation only on a regular basis are not permitted, unless they provide foods to a general public in a such as a soup kitchen or food bank or fall festival or something where they invite the community. Those events would be permitted but a church kitchen operating for the congregation only would not be permitted. That's an example. >> Troxclair: Okay. >> Houston: Thank you. Councilmember Garza? >> Garza: I think -- I think mayor pro tem basically said what I was trying to say, is that I understand there's a cost of service involved, but at the same time the city provides services all the time where we don't get that cost of service back. So I just want to see how we can balance whatever recommendations given, how we can balance the concern about the impact on smaller organizations with the -- with making sure that we have enough money to pay for the sanitary workers. >> Houston: And I think that if we had had time to understand this differently that motion could have been phrased so that the for hive profit events continue to be operated at whatever rate they are operating now, being charged now currently, because that's a big deal right now. And then we take the time to work on the nonprofits and the small neighborhood kinds of events. >> I agree, thank you. That's a good recommendation. >> Houston: Yes, ma'am. >> Tovo: Chair, I think that's a real interesting approach and it's certainly something we would have an option of doing [10:44:44 AM] with another council action, if you wanted to bring something like that forward. I don't know how that complicates your ability to assess fees through whatever city manager you use, but if a council -- if a subsequent council action on the next agenda or something like that -- >> If I may, I know that we currently exempt fees in Travis county for 501c3 organizations and they're required to provide some documentation to that effect. So there's a method -- you know, method by which we could, you know, identify nonprofit organizations and with council action have some type of a reduced fee amount or exemption. >> Houston: Any comments. >> Troxclair: I'll just make one quick comment. Because a lot of events in my neighborhoods that I'm referring to are specifically focused -- because we're seeing an increase in crime in the area, there are a -- lot of neighborhoods are forming neighborhood watch groups, things like, that having events to promote the neighbors to come out, meet each other and, you know, know more about what's going on in the neighborhood, so I guess I just wanted to make the comment when we're talking about return on investment, the cost to the city, I -- and I know there's no way to quantify it but I thought I would point out that if in fact those things are leading -- like I know in my neighborhood in particular, our neighborhood watch group has led to a reduction in crime in our neighborhood. So there may be other benefits that are -- that come from these events that aren't necessarily quantifiable within the temporary food permit realm. >> Houston: Okay. One more? We going to try to get Evan E everybody out by 11:00. >> Tovo: I'll make this quick. I think if there were any further action to separate nonprofit from for profit in the short term, I would want to really understand -- I know [10:46:45 AM] sometimes for profit events have a nonprofit beneficiary and I want to be sure that we are making distinctions there so that it sounds like there needs to be just a little bit more conversation around that piece. >> Okay. >> Houston: Okay, thank you. Let's move on to the women and children's shelter. >> Committee members, we're talking these last couple items are covering bond projects that we passed in the 2012 year and we have before us the project manager, robin C. And [indiscernible] From our departments. With that I'll let them take away. >> My name is Philip, manager with health and human services department. Just to give you a very quick background on this bond project, it's part of the 2012 bond funding. We received $3.8 million to increase the capacity for the women's and children shelter, build new day care facility, renovate existing buildings and improve the grounds. So far we are on schedule. We are at the end of the design phase, and we had extensive meetings with our partners, Salvation Army, who is operating the shelter, they run under the contract with us. So we're going through all the modalities on how to maximize funding for the construction and minimize the [indiscernible] To the shelter, so to build the shelters through phases so we don't have to close the shelter completely but also stay within the budget. As you know, the more complex the construction, the more it costs so we try to balance those two. We are on schedule and at the current plan we will be adding at least 20 beds to the existing shelter. Completely renovating the [10:48:45 AM] facility. And building the full-time day care facility. >> Houston: I just have one quick question. What's the current capacity and is this the shelter on town hill? >> Yes, ma'am, opinion the current capacity is six beds. >> Houston: Okay, thanks. >> Oh. >> Houston: Any other questions? Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Houston: Let's move along to montopolis. >> That would be still me. >> Houston: I don't know. Somebody, health and human services. Parks and recreation. >> We have assistant director from pad here, this is again to give you a little background, this is a joint project with the health and human services in and pard, funded at $15.5 million and it is the program that will build new recreation and community center as a joint facility. It was envisioned as a good economies of scale project. So it will house full hive scale recreation and center services and we have mcneily our assistant director who can talk about the rec part. It will house partner services, which will be -- there will be space in the new facility that will house partners from the social services arena that can tailor their services to montopolis neighborhood and also it will house public health nurse services so we will offer public health preventive services at that location. >> Houston: Thank you so much. Before you introduce yourself and speak for the parks and recreation department is there a time line we're operating under? >> Correct. So currently we're at the phase of construction request for qualifications,rfq with our contract management department. We had extensive public outreach [10:50:45 AM] and meetings, last one being last week where councilmember Renteria was present and in support of this project. We wanted to get input from the community to see how we can best tailor hiring consultants for this project. So the rfq will be coming to you to decide on it in the near future. The shelter completion -- the montopolis rec and community center completion is scheduled for summer of 2019. >> Houston: Yes, ma'am. >> Test. >> Houston: You're good. >> Sorry. Kimberly Mcneilly, assistant director for parks and recreation department. In regards to the service that's the parks and recreation department hopes to provide it wants to continue to provide the services currently at the site, which includes such things -- our core services, afterschool programs, summer camp, free drop-in programs that include something called bored and busters in the summer time, any kind of free sort of drop-in programs for students or individuals to utilize, the gymnasium. We also have youth sports like basketball, soccer, volleyball. We do have a weight room there. We have boxing that's available. And what we heard from the community for future services, which would be something that would be part of the design process or the design project, is additional exercise classes, nutritional cooking classes, some computer classes, parenting classes, maybe a music lab, some additional services for individuals who are considered senior citizens. We'd like to continue and plan to continue our meal program for students. We have something there called [10:52:47 AM] the kids cafe, which serves children who might not get a nutritious meal if they didn't have the opportunity to come to the montopolis recreation center. And please know that even though it's called kids cafe, if a mom or dad or guardian or grandma or grandpa or parent accompanies that child, everyone gets a meal. It's not just for kids. And we plan to continue to partner with the health and human services department to provide such things as fresh foods for families. We want to be able to continue to partner where there may be a food pantry that would be available, perhaps a clothes closet. Other sorts of health and human services type services that are for the benefit of helping keep people healthy, like basic health screenings for blood pressure or diabetes, things of that nature. So those are some of the plans. It's important for me to note that we did some very preliminary discussions about the services that individuals would like to see both continue and those that they would like to see new. And it will be during the design phase that we design the space and make some final decisions as to what that space looks like in order to accommodate all the different services that individuals are looking for. So it's still on the table as to identifying from the community what's most important. We did preliminary work, but in the next phase of this design project, we'll really make some headway in understanding exactly what people would like to see at this particular facility. >> Houston: Thank you. Are there any questions? That's amazing. Thank you so much. So for the members of the committee, our next meeting is the first Monday in April and one of the issues that has come up and we need to kind of set the agenda today so that we can [10:54:48 AM] get that all posted, one of the concerns that I have and that I would like to be on that agenda is the unregulated boarding homes, that there's been a work groups that been going on for four or five years now, and so I'd like the pros, cons and the legal underpinnings of why we haven't been able to regulate board and care homes. Anything else that we need to put on that Monday agenda? >> Garza: I'm going to be bringing forth a resolution about autism benefits for city employees. >> Houston: I have that right here. >> Garza: So if we can get that on the next one, that would be great. >> Tovo: Suppose the temporary food permits, if the impact fee advisory committee has an opportunity to look at it, my guess is it probably won't be an our agenda until may. >> Houston: Who is on that committee. >> Tovo: That's a citizen committee. That's a board and&commission. >> Houston: Are they operating now? Does anybody know when they're meeting? That depends on what that date looks like. >> I'm not sure that we know, madam chair, but we can look into that and let your office know. >> Houston: Would you, please? >> Absolutely. >> Tovo: If not, again, may would be fine. >> Houston: Any other things that we need to do before I adjourn this committee and let folks go home, back to their offices? >> Madam chair, there was an item -- >> Spring break. >> Houston: Did you a great job and paid attention, which is really interesting. I kept watching you. >> Amazing. No one pays attention all the time. Madam chair I believe y'all discussed at the last council meeting independent school district and their budgets and the impact on city services and city services impact on school budgets. I think that's something that sounded like y'all wanted to talk about maybe at an upcoming health and human services committee meeting. I don't know if you want to -- [10:56:49 AM] we can range for it at the next meeting, work on it if you'd like but I think it sounded like y'all wanted to consider. >> Houston: I think we do want to consider consider that. The joint aid subcommittee is said for sometime -- it's the third Friday, which is this Friday? So that might be a good time. >> Yeah, that might be a bit ambitious but we'll keep it on the back burner in the meantime. >> Tovo: Just -- I believe the -- in consideration of spring break, I believe the joint subcommittee was moved to the 27th of March. >> Houston: Yeah. So move it in may, first of may? >> Will do. >> Houston: Thank you so much. If that's all, we stand adjourned. Thank you.